Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/429

Rh claims will be preferred? Why, of the men elected to Congress in the Southern States last year, a vast majority were elected upon the distinct pledge that this demand for compensation would be preferred and insisted upon. Every Southern man will tell you that the Southern members, with the exception of a few members from Tennessee, and perhaps Arkansas, will be a solid unit upon that very question; and, in fact, if the rebel States be readmitted unconditionally, such as they are, will it not be natural? How many thousand millions they will demand, who knows? At any rate, they will demand enough to have a good many millions to spare, with which to buy up the necessary number of Northern doughfaces. And you will keep in mind that I am reasoning upon the supposition that the majority in Congress be composed of Southerners and Northern Johnson men, whose incorruptibility may be considered not quite above temptation since the consciences of so many of them have proved unable to resist mere visions of something to eat.

Next in order come the pensions paid to disabled soldiers and sailors and to the widows and orphans of those who lost their lives in the struggle against the rebellion. Will the late rebels consent to help pay pensions to those, or to the widows and orphans of those who subjugated them, while nothing is given to the rebel soldiers who defended them? Look into the Southern press; listen to the speeches of their candidates for office, and you will find the answer. No sooner will the rebel States be admitted, unconditionally such as they are, than the alternative will be put to us either to stop paying pensions to Northern invalids, widows and orphans, or to pay them likewise to those whose claims are based upon services rendered to the rebel cause. Can such a thing be thought of? The tender-hearted Johnsonites, who wept together with their Southern friends at the